What Not to Do If You Turn Invisible

Turning invisible at will: it's one way of curing your acne. But far more drastic than 13 year-old Ethel Leatherhead intended when she tried a combination of untested medicines and a sunbed. It's fun at first, being invisible. And aided by her friend Boydy, she manages to keep her extraordinary ability secret. Or does she?

The 1,000-Year-Old Boy

There are stories about people who want to live forever. This is not one of those stories.... Alfie Monk is like any other nearly teenage boy - except he's 1,000 years old and can remember the last Viking invasion of England. Obviously no-one believes him. So when everything Alfie knows and loves is destroyed in a fire, and the modern world comes crashing in, Alfie embarks on a mission to find friendship, acceptance and a different way to live...which means finding a way to make sure he will eventually die.

The Wizards of Once: Book 1

Once there was magic, and the magic lived in the dark forests. Until the warriors came... This is the story of a young boy wizard and a young girl warrior who have been taught since birth to hate each other like poison and the thrilling tale of what happens when their two worlds collide. Xar is a wizard boy who has no magic and will do anything to get it. Wish is a warrior girl, but she owns a banned magical object, and she will do anything to conceal it.

The Accidental Billionaire

Jasper Spam is mad about science. The problem is that his experiments tend to end in a bang - until one day Jasper manages to invent something that will change the world forever...the world's first talking cat. With his newfound wealth Jasper can finally live the life he's always dreamed of - buying a mansion and a sports team and producing a Hollywood blockbuster. But is there a huge price to pay for bringing talking cats to the world?

The Explorer

Fred awoke to find that a snake was watching him and that there was an aeroplane in the trees. It was on fire. Being on fire was a quality it shared with much of the surrounding jungle. After crashing hundreds of miles from civilisation in the Amazon rainforest, Fred, Con, Lila and Max are utterly alone and in grave danger. They have no food, no water and no chance of being rescued. But they are alive, and they have hope. As they negotiate the wild jungle, they begin to find signs that something - someone - has been there before them.

Birthday Boy

What if it was every day? This is the story of Sam Green, who really, really, really loves birthdays. He loves the special breakfasts in bed. The presents. The themed parties. Blowing out the candles on his cake. Everything. He is so excited about his 11th birthday, in fact, that he wishes it was his birthday every day. So at first it's quite exciting when his birthday happens again the next morning. And again. And again. And again....

Radio Boy: Radio Boy, Book 1

Spike's your average awkward 11-year-old, funny and cheeky and with a mum to reckon with. When he becomes the first presenter ever to be sacked from hospital radio, he decides to carry on from a makeshift studio in the garden shed, with the help of his best friends, Artie and Holly, disguising his voice and going by the moniker Radio Boy. Week by week word gets around, and soon Spike is a star...if only people knew it was actually him.

Kid Normal

When Murph Cooper rocks up to his new school, he can't help but feel a bit out of his depth. And it's not because he's worried about where to sit, and making friends, and fitting in, or not knowing where the loos are. It's because his mum has enrolled him at a school for superheroes by mistake. And unlike his fellow students Murph has no special abilities whatsoever. But just because you don't have superpowers, it doesn't mean you can't save the day....

Bad Dad

The new heartwarming and hilariously brilliant story, beautifully read by number one best-selling author David Walliams. Dads come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. There are fat ones and thin ones, tall ones and short ones. There are young ones and old ones, clever ones and stupid ones. There are silly ones and serious ones, loud ones and quiet ones. Of course, there are good dads and bad dads.... A high-speed cops and robbers adventure with heart and soul about a father and son taking on the villainous Mr Big - and winning!

The Astounding Broccoli Boy

Find out why it's not easy being green in the hilarious new story from Frank Cottrell Boyce: The Astounding Broccoli Boy! Rory Rooney likes to be prepared for all eventualities. His favourite book is Don't Be Scared, Be Prepared, and he has memorized every page of it. He could even survive a hippo attack. He knows that just because something is unlikely doesn't mean it won't ever happen.... But Rory isn't prepared when he suddenly and inexplicably turns green.

The Accidental Prime Minister

When Joe tells a local news reporter exactly what he would do if he were leader of the country, the video goes viral, and Joe's speech becomes famous all over the world! Before long people are calling for the current leader to resign and give someone else a go...and that's how an ordinary boy like Joe ends up with the most extraordinary job. Now the fun can really start!

Radio Boy and the Revenge of Grandad: Radio Boy, Book 2

Debut sensation Christian O'Connell is back with more hilarious adventures of Spike, superstar radio DJ...and trouble-prone ordinary kid. The world's youngest DJ is still the talk of the town. A town that's about to turn against him. Radio Boy and his team, Artie and Holly, are back and continue to broadcast live to the world from Spike's garden shed. Then, following a shock split from Nan, Grandad Ray comes to stay. Spike decides to cheer him up by inviting him onto the show.

The Accidental Secret Agent

This year the secret service made a major mix -up. They mistook a 13-year-old boy called Kevin for a secret agent (I know, so much for an 'intelligence' agency). This was the sort of kid that would try and zip wire across a building and end up falling headfirst into a fountain, with his bum on show. Despite this, it is up to Kevin to save us all from an evil supervillain!

Who Let The Gods Out?

Elliot's mum is ill and his home is under threat, but a shooting star crashes to earth and changes his life forever. The star is Virgo - a young Zodiac goddess on a mission. But the pair accidentally release Thanatos, a wicked death daemon imprisoned beneath Stonehenge, and must then turn to the old Olympian gods for help. After centuries of cushy retirement on earth, are Zeus and his crew up to the task of saving the world - and solving Elliot's problems too?

The Person Controller

From the author of
The Parent Agency comes a thrilling, funny and touching new adventure. Fred and Ellie are twins. But not identical (because that's impossible for a boy and a girl). They do like all the same things, though. Especially video games. Which they are very good at. They aren't that good, however, at much else - like, for example, football, or dealing with the school bullies. Then they meet the Mystery Man, who sends them a video game controller which doesn't look like any other controller they've ever seen.

Sputnik's Guide to Life on Earth

The Blythes are a big, warm, rambunctious family who live on a small farm and sometimes foster children. Now Prez has come to live with them. But, though he seems cheerful and helpful, he never says a word. Then one day Prez answers the door to someone claiming to be his relative. This small, loud stranger carries a backpack, walks with a swagger and goes by the name of Sputnik. As Prez dithers on the doorstep, Sputnik strolls right past him and introduces himself to everyone in the household.

The Parent Agency

A brilliantly funny, gripping novel from a born storyteller, The Parent Agency is an epic wish-fulfilment adventure for every child - and for the child in everyone. Barry said, a third time, "I wish I had better parents!" And then suddenly the entire room started to shake. Barry Bennett hates being called Barry. In fact it's number 2 on the list of things he blames his parents for, along with 1) 'being boring' and 3) 'always being tired'. But there is a world, not far from this one, where parents don't have children.

AniMalcolm

From David Baddiel, the brightest new star of children's books and winner of the Lollies award, comes a laugh-out-loud adventure for every child who ever wondered what it might be like to be a bit of an animal.... Malcolm doesn't like animals. Which is a problem because his family love them. Their house is full of pets. What the house is not full of is stuff Malcolm likes. Such as the laptop he wanted for his birthday.

The World's Worst Children 2

The brilliant follow-up to David Walliams' best seller
The World's Worst Children! Ten more stories about a brand-new gang of hilariously horrible kids from everyone's favourite children's author. If you thought you had heard about the world's worst children already, you're in for a rather nasty shock. The beastly boys and gruesome girls in this book are even ruder, even more disgusting and WORSE than you could ever imagine!

The Last Wild

In a world where animals no longer exist, 12-year-old Kester Jaynes sometimes feels like he hardly exists, either. Locked away in a home for troubled children, he's told there's something wrong with him. So when he meets a flock of talking pigeons and a bossy cockroach, Kester thinks he's finally gone a bit mad. But the animals have something to say.... The pigeons fly Kester to a wild place where the last creatures in the land have survived. A wise stag needs Kester's help, and together they must embark on a great journey, joined along the way by an over-enthusiastic wolf cub, a spoilt show cat, a dancing harvest mouse, and a stubborn girl named Polly.

My Brother Is a Superhero

Luke is a comic-mad 11-year-old who shares a tree house with his geeky older brother, Zack. Luke's only mistake is to go for a wee right at the wrong time. While he's gone, an alien gives his undeserving, never-read-a-comic-in-his-life brother superpowers and then tells him to save the universe. Luke is massively annoyed about this, but when Zack is kidnapped by his archnemesis, Luke and his friends have only five days to find him and save the world.... Hilariously narrated by Joe Thomas.

Millions

Here's a bittersweet story about the perils and pleasures of pounds and pennies. It will make you laugh and cry. Two bothers, Damian and Anthony, are unwittingly caught up in a train robbery during Britain's countdown to join the Euro. Suddenly finding themselves with a vast amount of cash, the boys have just one glorious, appalling dilemma - how to spend it in the few days before it becomes worthless.

Beetle Boy

Darkus is miserable. His dad has disappeared, and now he is living next door to the most disgusting neighbours ever. A giant beetle called Baxter comes to his rescue. But can the two solve the mystery of his dad's disappearance, especially when links emerge to cruel Lucretia Cutter and her penchant for beetle jewellery? A coffee-mug mountain, home to a million insects, could provide the answer - if Darkus and Baxter are brave enough to find it.

The Creakers

What silently waits in the shadows at night? What's under your bed, keeping just out of sight? Do you ever hear strange, creaking noises at night? Ever wonder what makes those noises? Lucy Dungston always did. Until, one morning, Lucy discovers that all the grown-ups have disappeared - as if into thin air. Chaos descends as the children in Lucy's town run riot. It's mayhem. It's madness. To most kids, it's amazing!

Publisher's Summary

A truly original debut novel from an extraordinarily talented new voice in children's books.

Laugh, cry and wonder at this race-against-time story of a boy who travels back to 1984 to prevent a go-kart accident and save his father's life....

My dad died twice. Once when he was 39 and again four years later, when he was 12. The first time had nothing to do with me. The second time definitely did, but I would never even have been there if it hadn't been for his 'time machine'....

When Al Chaudhury discovers his late dad's time machine, he finds that going back to the 1980s requires daring and imagination. It also requires lies, theft, burglary and setting his school on fire. All without losing his pet hamster, Alan Shearer....

What the Critics Say

"Touching, silly and exciting by turns, this thrilling little book is an inventive take on time travel for children. Sure to be a hit with fans of R.J. Palacio's Wonder...an unforgettable, madcap story from a bright new talent in children's fiction." (Waterstones)

What an excellent book - we listened as a family (three boys ages 8,11,14 plus mom and dad) all the way to Scotland and back. All of us were thoroughly entertained and committed to the characters! Superb audio presentation too. Highly recommend this book - so sad it is over.

I am certainly not a young adult any more but I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was funny, poignant and intelligent but written in a friendly entertaining way and would appeal to all ages over about twelve, I would say, with an interest in science. Read extremely well by the narrator, my only bugbear being that he mispronounced a couple of names, but they were unusual names! Highly recommended.

This is an amazing book that suits ALL ages. It really gets your mind thinking about the laws and physics of time travel.

Summary:Fictional tale of a boy that gets mixed up between parallel universes with his hamster Alan Shearer to try and save his dad. When disaster strikes, Al tries to undo the damage he has caused to the 'space time continuum' but finds out, it's not as easy as it looks...

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this book with my 8 year old. The characters were beautifully described and the story line was original, comical and moving. It kept me guessing and hoping right to the end. A talented writer I hope to read more from.

I knew that I wouldnt like it but I was wrong it was so creative I'm 12 I could relate but omg the part were spoiler alert!!! The cats dying in gas but this was epic if there was ever a sequal I'm buying it. 🐱🆒🆒🆒🆒🆒🆒🆒🆒🆒🆒🆒

I'm not entirely sure how I came to have this in my library. I was probably looking for light-hearted comedic books for my kids to listen to in the car and picked it for its title, but instead I got a touching and heartwarming story that will stay with me for a long, long time. I had little in the way of expectation but I found myself listening to a meticulously planned and beautifully written novel, on a fascinating and speculative subject that so many have tried but rarely succeeded in turning into plausible fiction, i.e. time travel. As you might reasonably guess, what makes it such a great book is not the time travel itself (although that aspect of it is fascinating), but the emotional experience of a twelve year old boy who misses his deceased father. However, as it's the boy himself telling the story there is nothing overly sentimental about the telling, just a matter-of-fact account of the world through his eyes. This lends it a simple and concise writing style, which makes it accessible to all ages, adults and children alike. Probably for ten years and up really, but I'm going to encourage my eight year old son to read it. I really wish this book had been around when I was a boy. It would have been read and re-read until the pages started to fall apart.I should also say something about the narrator, who deserves credit for his performance. He did a fine job of convincing me I was listening to a twelve year old from Tyneside.If I had to make a change to this it would be to the title, because it doesn't seem to do the book justice somehow, but I don't have any better suggestions and anyway, if it had a more serious title I might not have been tempted into buying it - which would have been a most grievous error on my part.